The Subliminal Messages in Windows 98

Subliminals are a memetic virus: you suggest their existence, and suddenly, they're popping up everywhere. Fortunately, you don't have to look too hard to see subliminals in the opening screen of Windows 98. There's a plainly visible image of an eagle in the middle of the left side of the Win98 splash screen , and a "loving couple" at the lower right. And look, doesn't the male figure look like he's wearing a priest's collar?

Gates Buys a Winslow Homer painting...
As detailed in the story at http://cnn.com/US/9805/05/briefs.pm/gates.painting/index.html, Bill Gates recently bought a famous painting by Winslow Homer.

Gcma...@mcs.drexel.edu, who pointed this out, asks, "why is Bill Gates so interested in Homer?"
Is it just a good investment, or is it more? Homer, many have noted, is a "deep" artist whose works are not only beautiful and natural (mostly seascapes with clouds, wind and waves) they also allegedly include subliminal messages.

Go here:

http://pages.prodigy.net/bueschen/homer/ for an analysis of the subliminal themes in Homer's work.
Next go here for an analysis of the subliminal messages in Windows 95: http://www.tcp.ca/gsb/PC/Win95-subliminals.html
For more informtion on illusions and how subliminal persuasion works: http://illusionworks.com/

"So what is Bill up to?" asks Gcmastra. "He has armies of people working on making Windows operating system 'ubiquitous' but also 'subcutaneous' -- by that I mean it gets 'under your skin' in ways that you are not even aware."

Gates knows very well, asserts Gcmastra - - or he has paid people very well to determine scientifically -- what it takes to maintain the Windows monopoly. It's not just that the operating system is integrated to the computer and the browser- it is also being integrated into our collective subconscious. Don't believe it? The web pages on subliminals are the single most popular section on this website. That's the power of the memetic virus. Once the spore has been planted, it takes on a life of its own.

For more info, see the mailing list:

http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~gcmastra/strange1.html
(go to the category "Simulacra in Space")

Or the bookmark file:
http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~gcmastra/bookmark.html
in the category "New & Notable"

Is this just a wacky theory, or am I onto something here? Are there more subliminals? Have I missed anything? What happens if you display the files backwards? Is Elvis alive? Is Bill dead?

Bob Loblaw was going to provide us with an author's bio, but he suddenly had to leave. He said something about needing to buy nine more copies of Microsoft Windows.

For further information...

Are there Subliminals in Windows 95?
More Subliminals in Windows 95?
Subliminal Messages on TV?
Sgt. Pepper subliminals?!
Send us your Subliminal Theories!

Books:

Key, Wilson Bryan. 1972. Subliminal Seduction. New York: Signet. (also available in Paperback with the subtitle: "Ad Media's Manipulation of a Not So Innocent America." New York: Prentice Hall, 1973, 205 pp for US$9.75). With an introduction by Marshall McLuhan, this is the book which blew the cover on the use of subliminal methods in advertising.
Key also wrote a sequel to Subliminal Seduction entitled Media Sexploitation (Paperback, 1976, 234 pp. US$9.75), about how hidden and subliminal images and messages are used by everyday advertising.

IT Library

The Techno Zone

User Account

The Subliminal Messages in Windows 98

Post new comment

More like this . . .

How many search commands do you have in your PC?

Linux News

A Mac OS X Overview

Editorial: MS World Domination Scorecard

Windows Server 2003

Alternative GUIs for Windows XP

Codename: Whistler